Last post we finished up our main class intros when we went over the Fighter class. But there's still one more "class" left to cover, and that is Collarless!
Collarless is not a class in the same sense as the other classes we've shown off, but represents "Unclassed" cats and a large set of common abilities that are available to every class. Strays and kittens are all born with one random collarless active ability by default, and either a basic melee attack or a basic short-ranged attack. If you want a fancier basic attack, give them a collar! Their starting abilities are kept when you assign a class collar however, so their starting ability is a pretty good way to inform your class choice, if you are unsure.
When a cat levels up, if abilities or passives are offered, some of them will be collarless abilities and some of them will be class abilities, depending on your Luck stat (higher Luck = more chance for class abilities to show up instead of collarless). Collarless abilities are *usually* worse than class abilities, but many of them are designed to fill gaps to round out your cat, or even be very strong in very specific situations, so sometimes that collarless ability might just be exactly what you need.
If you depart on an adventure without giving a collar to a cat, it will learn one random collarless active and one random collarless passive upon depart, (the same way a classed cat learns a random class active and passive), but it will remain purely collarless the whole adventure, and does not receive any innate bonus stats the way classed cats do. Only collarless abilities will be offered on level up. It's uh, not a good strategy, but there for those looking for a challenge. Please put collars on your cats!
Anyway, lets go over a few Collarless abilities now.
Active Abilities
Active abilities cost mana to use, but you can keep using them as many times as you want during your turn as long as you have the mana to cast them. Here's a few examples of collarless active abilities you might get offered when your cats level up. There are over 100 collarless actives that can show up on level up, and cats of any class can get offered them instead of class abilities.
Roll
Roll is a simple movement ability that lets you roll up to 3 tiles away in a straight line, even through obstacles and enemies.
Butt Scoot
Butt Scoot lets you move 1 tile in any direction and leave behind a maggot familiar when you do. Check out the Hunter post if you want a reminder of how familiars work!
Spit
Spit is an infinite range, 1-damage projectile attack with water element. Check out the Mage post if you want a reminder of how elements work!
Play Dead
When you use play dead, you immediately down yourself, but do not get injured. Normally when you get downed, you get an injury that is a permanent stat debuff. This ability is significantly more useful than you'd think at first!
Copy Cat
Copy Cat is always a copy of the last ability an ally cat used. Pay attention to that turn order in the top right!
Burst
Burst is a high damage infinite range magical attack with a reasonable mana cost, however you can only cast it once per battle.
Ponder
Increase your intelligence by 1 (for the duration of the battle). Costs 4 mana to use, and as a reminder intelligence increases your mana regen by 1. Math out if its worth it, nerds!
Metronome
Upon use, casts a random cat ability (any ability cats can learn, classed or collarless). The cat will automatically target the ability it chooses (and its only gonna select abilities that have reasonable targets). Is it fun? Oh hell yes. Is it good? Uh...
Passive Abilities
Passive abilities do not cost mana and don't need to be "used". As long as your cat has the passive, it just constantly effects them in some way. Here's a few examples of passive abilities you might get offered when your cats level up. There are over 50 collarless passives that can show up on level up, and cats of any class can get offered them instead of class passives.
Might of the Meek
Any damage you deal that is 2 or less is always a critical hit.
Mini Me
At the start of the battle spawn a half sized familiar version of yourself with half of your stats. Your mini-me has all of the same abilities and passives and items that you do, but is AI controlled (you better hope he does what you want!)
Dirty Claws
If you attack a poisoned or bleeding enemy with any physical attack or ability, Dirty Claws causes that enemy to gain an extra stack of Poison and/or Bleed. Amplify those debuffs! Check out the Thief post if you want a reminder of how Poison works!
Skill Share
Skill Share is a passive that duplicates your other passive onto all of your other cats (during battle only). If you're wondering if that has the potential to be extremely broken... well... it absolutely does.
And with that, we are done with class intros. We have covered all the classes and there definitely aren't any other secret classes in the game. nope. no way. So I'm handing the blog posts back over to Edmund for the next one, maybe he'll write about poop or something! See you then!
- Tyler